<p>Professor Jim Horne, director of the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University told the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1246029/Who-REALLY-needs-sleep--men-women-One-Britains-leading-sleep-experts-says-answer.html">Mail Online </a>that&nbsp;&#39;One of the major functions of sleep is to allow the brain to recover and repair itself.&nbsp;Women tend to multi-task&nbsp;-&nbsp;they do lots at once and are flexible&nbsp;-&nbsp;and so they use more of their actual brain than men do. Because of that, their sleep need is greater.&nbsp;</p>

<p>&quot;However, a&nbsp;man who has a complex job that involves a lot of decision-making and lateral thinking may also need more sleep than the average male,&nbsp;though probably still not as much as a woman&quot;, explained Professor Horne.</p>

<p>Further research from the University of Surrey showed that once they&#39;ve woken up, women find it much harder to get back to sleep than men and Professor Horne adds that&nbsp;the&nbsp;&#39;mother&#39;s minds are sensitive to the sound of their child crying from babyhood onwards, so that is often why they wake when a youngster stirs&nbsp;-&nbsp;yet a man sleeps through it.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The average adult needs between six and eight hours of sleep a night,&#39; says Professor Horne. &#39;But individual needs differ greatly&nbsp; -&nbsp; some people can get by easily on six hours while others can&#39;t.&nbsp;</p>

<p>&#39;What is important is that people have enough sleep to ensure they do not feel excessively sleepy in the day.&#39;</p>
